


Conversations

by Yarol2075



Series: A General, a Jedi and a Bounty Hunter all Walk into a Bar [2]
Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Multi, Some Humor, Some Plot, Sometimes Serious, episodic, sometimes not
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-02-16
Updated: 2016-07-25
Packaged: 2018-05-21 03:34:44
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 13
Words: 7,303
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/6036328
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Yarol2075/pseuds/Yarol2075
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Fetts have joined the Resistance.  The Resistance is rethinking this.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Bouillabaise

**Author's Note:**

> There will be minor/background JediStormPilot.

“Your sons almost caused a riot in the mess, and you've been here only a day and a half,” General Organa dropped into the chair across from Boba Fett, “What was wrong with the soup?”

“They’re use to my cooking, and they expect fish soup to have fish in it.  Not cold water with vegetables and perhaps a fish scale run through the water,” Boba shrugged, carefully moving a very small piece of circuitry, “and that Naboo chef idiot insinuating that they were uncultured dolts as well as not being real people because they’re clones probably didn't help.”

Leia winced; usually Resistance members kept their private prejudices private, but the Fetts were _loud_ in a peculiarly _quiet_ way.

“That is not the general belief of the Resistance; I’ll have a word with him.”

“You do that,” Boba closed the box he had been fussing with, and looked up at her. 

Leia associated many things with Boba Fett but worried tired father was not one of them, and his current expression reminded her of Bail Organa the last time she ever saw her father.

He stood up and stretched, joints creaking and popping, then he handed her a list.

"What's this?"

"A list of ingredients. I didn't realize when we came here I was going to have to teach your people to how to cook."

It was probably a good thing that even at his age Fett was fast on his feet.


	2. Meditation 01

Luke opened one eye warily.  His meditation was increasingly becoming his only time alone, and he really didn’t want to encourage allegedly retired bounty hunters into thinking it was all right to just thump themselves down next to him.  Still he had to ask.

“J’mee, Jango and Jaster?”

“My grandfather, my father, and my father’s mentor.”

“Ah.”

“Hmmhum.”

“J’mee is the oldest.”

“By ten days.”

“Jango and Jaster are twins.”

“Yep.”

“Jango is Force-sensitive.”

“Possibly.”

“You’d rather he not become a Jedi.”

“Up to him.”

“He’d never abandon Jaster.”

“No, he wouldn’t.”

“Still, you have ideas about how the Jedi Order should be rebuilt.”

“I’m just a simple man trying to make my way in the universe.”

“You’re full of bantha fodder.”

“Yep.”

Luke smiled.


	3. Requiem

There was decent fishing on D’Qar.  Not particularly challenging.  Nothing like spearing kaminoan rollerfish.  But decent.

What did surprise Fett was that it was the Wookie out of all the Resistance who fished regularly.

“I may have not liked the man much myself, but I am sorry for your loss,” Fett said, after another day of ignoring one another even as they shared a cold chest to transport the fish back to the base.

Chewbacca grunted.

“Captain Solo was a good man,” Fett conceded.


	4. Some Wounds Never Heal

Afterwards, after people stopped and stared, after Fett offered to teach Finn and Finn was dragged away by Poe before he could accept, just after….

“Should we ask where you got those?” Leia asked before Luke could say anything, possibly thinking she was sparing her brother grief.

“You know where I got them,” Fett replied, slotting the lightsabers into the weapons case.  He and his sons may have been uprooted, but he wasn’t going to forgo any part of their training just spare the sensibilities of the Resistance.  His boys would know how to fight and how to fight with lightsabers; it was life or death.

“Do you remember their names?” Luke asked quietly.

“Not all of them.  I tried to kill the younger ones fast, hard to do, Jedi are hard to kill, didn’t want them to know what hit them, not their fault the Jedi Council was a pack of barves,” Fett said his eyes going distant. He selected one that hadn’t been used in the drills he had run his sons through, “This one your Father gave me, had it recovered,” he flicked the activator button and the purple blade ignited.  His scarred face devolved into a grieving snarl, “Jedi Master Mace Windu."

Leia looked at Luke silently asking if he recognized the name, something in his face made her wonder; he seemed angry, but not at the bounty hunter.  Leia gently reached over and covered Fett's hand.  She carefully made him flick the activator switch off.   With surprising ease she removed the hilt from his grip, and then replaced it in the weapons case and shut it.  Fett staggered back, his back hitting the wall.  He looked around confused, lost.

Out of the shadows his sons came drifting in and over to their Dad.  They huddled around him and then as one turned to stare at Luke and Leia with the same blankly angry expression. 

"You should go," J'mee said softly.

"Yes," Jango started, his hand twitching as if it were seeking out a blaster.

"They should," Jaster finished, reaching out to still his brother's hand.

"We'll discuss this again later," Leia said as she and Luke slipped out of the room.


	5. Meditation 02

It was beginning to be a pattern; Luke would find somewhere new to meditate, and a day later Fett would be there.  All things considered it wasn't as if Fett was a distraction, he would just sit there.  Luke thought the man might be meditating himself.  Nonetheless, training Rey, training her properly, was tiring because there was so much he was learning himself, he was forging a new path while relearning an ancient one and he wanted the footing to be sure for her.  Having someone else there though, it was like a hum you just couldn't find the source of and it drove Luke mad.

Yet it was always Luke who started conversations.

"Just how well did you know my Father?"

"I thought you could ask him?  At least from the rumors I’ve heard."

"It doesn't work like that, and there is a certain reticence about some subjects."

"Probably better than most.  He talked.  I keep my mouth shut.  It seems healthier that way."

"You're not going to answer any questions about him?"

"Not without his permission; my employer may be dead but the contracts still hold.  Well, where Lord Vader is involved.  He deserves to have his secrets kept."

"You were yelling information at my nephew."

"Harmless stuff, which if the little barve had _done_ its research, it would have found out."

Luke considered this.

"Why are you loyal to my Father?  Aside from the credits he paid you."

"He understands."

"Ah."

Silence fell.

"You don't understand, do you?"

"I will in time."

"You're confident."

“You could have just dropped Ben off and gone into hiding.  But you stayed.”

“So I did.”


	6. Bibliophile

Poe’s eyes widening made Finn stopped and jerk around to see what Poe was reacting to.  Finn’s quiet oaths made Rey stop and follow their gaze to one of the Fett boys sitting cross-legged against a wall and writing in…

“What is that?” Rey asked.

“It’s a book,” Poe replied almost reverently.

“It doesn’t look like any book I’ve seen.”

“It’s a real bound book, not a datapad,” Finn breathed, he was leaning ever so slightly in the direction of the Fett, “they’re rare.  I’ve only ever seen holos of them.”

“Should Jaster be writing in it?” Rey asked, still a little confused by Poe and Finn’s astonishment.

That question snapped Poe out of his haze.  The Fett boys almost always dressed alike, certainly acted enough alike, and yet they genuinely seemed confused when Resistance members couldn’t tell them apart.  Other than Rey, General Organa and Master Skywalker, Finn had the highest success rate, but he would just smile sadly and say he had practice, and no one really wanted to poke at that wound just yet.

“It’s a Force thing isn’t it?” Poe grinned, “Knowing that that’s Jaster, and not Jango or J’mee.”

Rey returned the grin.

“They do all stand out in the Force,” she gleefully admitted, “Like the difference between here and Jakku.”

Finn cleared his throat and elbowed both of them to get their attention; Jaster had closed the book and was looking at them.  Finn wasn’t entirely certain of it but he would bet good credits the one of the first things Boba Fett had taught his sons was how to appear completely calm and collected and yet still just a moment away from, oh say, ripping an arm off or eviscerating you.

“One feature you’ll find is standard on all three of us is that we have good ears,” Jaster called out cheerfully, “if you want to come and take a look at it,” he held up his book, “you can.”

Finn and Poe hesitated, but Rey bounded right over.  She knelt down next to him.

“My Dad had this made, had one made for each of us.  He had a classic version of the Bounty Hunting Guild guidebook, a book written by the Head of Deathwatch on how not to be Mando’ade as Dad says bound together and made sure there was room for stuff he wrote for us, and room for us to write our own stuff,” Jaster explained to her and Poe and Finn as they joined them, letting Rey flip through the first half of the book before taking it back.  He looked at Finn and Poe, reading their faces, and laughed, “yeah, it should have been expensive, except the bookbinder owed Dad big time.”

“That’s quite a gift,” Poe gave a little laugh, “you’ll always have a bit of your father with you.”

Jaster considered that, and involuntarily hugged the book to himself. 

“Yeah,” he said thoughtfully, he looked at the trio consideringly, “yeah, that’s one of things he has a thing about.  He doesn’t any of us to ever be alone.”

Rey’s breath caught for a moment and she understood all too well what the elder Fett was trying to do by giving those books to his sons.  Then Finn wrapped an arm around her shoulders and wrapped the other around Poe’s.

“You’re not alone,” Finn said fiercely, “you’ve got us, and we’re not going anywhere.”

Poe nodded in agreement and gave each of them a quick kiss.

“Uhm,” Jaster wrinkled his nose, “if you guys are going to get mushy can you find J’mee to do it in front of?  I know he’d love to watch, but I’m not into that stuff.”

Rey and Finn blushed, Poe just laughed.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Actual book books are rare in the Star Wars Universe.  
> Boba basically gave his sons this:[The Bounty Hunter's Code](http://www.amazon.com/Bounty-Hunter-Code-Files-Boba/dp/1477805982/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1456020169&sr=1-1&keywords=the+bounty+hunter+code+from+the+files+of+boba+fett) with a section he hand wrote for each of them, and room for them to have their own journals.


	7. Compost

“What exactly did you do to General Hux?” Leia couldn’t contain her curiosity, not after reading the latest intelligence report. Neither could the rest of the Resistance leadership, however Fett seemed to only deign to speak with General Organa or her brother about military matters. It was becoming a point of contention, but Leia wanted to plan very carefully before bringing the matter up with the old bounty hunter; she wasn’t certain Fett even knew he was doing it. And to her surprise, when she didn’t think about all the grief the man had caused her and her family, she found she rather liked the man.

“Who is General Hux?” Boba asked looking up from an old smugglers map; they were trying to determine what routes might still be viable. He was surprised the General was letting him near something that undoubtedly once been the property of her late husband.

“One of the Leaders of the First Order?” Leia asked in disbelief, “He was with Ben when he”

“Landed the ship on my house. Red haired? Looks a bit weasley?” Fett sat back and grinned, “Left him tied up hanging up-side down over the compost pit. The shackles on his legs were on time-release though,” he said brightly.

“But none of the other shackles were, were they?” the image Leia was building in her mind’s eye was probably inappropriate, but she could feel a giggle building.

“Nope. But the shackles on the Stormtroopers my boys took out were timed to release a minute or two after his,” Boba said in mock seriousness, “the goal was to deter not kill. Why are you asking?” he finished with an arched eyebrow.

The giggle escaped Leia. It was probably the first truly joyous sound Leia had made in weeks. But she quickly composed herself.

“According to the latest intelligence report, General Hux has developed a need to bathe every few hours,” Leia made a note to add the information Fett had just provided to the report, “this explain why,” concern shaded her next words, “You know you’ve made a dangerous enemy.”

“That’s the story of my life, General Organa,” Fett sighed, he pointed to the map, “This route might still be viable; the Hutts support it. And they don’t like the First Order.”


	8. You've got Questions...

There were times Finn found himself by himself.  When Poe had to go on patrol, when Rey was training with Jedi Master Luke Skywalker (Luke Skywalker! Really! Rey was going to be a Jedi Knight trained by Luke Skywalker!  A part of Finn just couldn’t get over how cool it was that Rey got to train with a Living Legend.  There were days he couldn’t get over that he was meeting and working with the actual figures of Galactic history.)  Finn had duties, of course, but sometimes their schedules didn’t quite align as well they wished they would, so sometimes Finn had down time alone.

Or he did until J’mee Fett plopped himself down across from him at the mess hall table where Finn had been reading the New Republic’s version of History, catching up on details that First Order suppressed.

“So, I know you have questions, and you’re the least likely to freak at the answers,” J’mee started without preamble, “so ask away.”

Finn put down the datapad.

“Uh?  What?” it wasn’t that he hadn’t understood what J’mee had said, but what he knew, what anyone really knew about the Fetts, was that they just didn’t offer to let you question them.

J’mee rolled his eyes.

“Questions.  You know, it looked like you and your cuddle-banthas had some the other day when Dad was having us practice with the glow-swords; Jaster told me you asked about the books,” J’mee huffed in exasperation, “so there’s information you’re curious about but afraid Dad’ll take your head off if you ask.  _Questions_.”

“Cuddle-banthas?” Finn laughed, “That’s a new one. Uh, yeah, I have a few questions.”

J’mee impatiently looked at him, and opened his hands in a ‘come on already’ gesture.

“How did he get out of the Sarlacc?” was the first thing that popped out of Finn’s mouth.

“Dad’s a walking weapons system when he’s in full armor,” J’mee replied, “although from he’s said the inside of a Sarlacc is a toxic mix of psychotropics, sedatives, and acid; it might also be telepathic.  So it took him a while to remember that the missile on his jetpack wasn’t just for show.  Then some jawas decided the armor was worth more than Dad’s life and stripped it off him and left him to die.  Obviously he didn’t.”

Finn took that in, and nodded.

“Just how old is your Dad?  There are stories about him that go back nearly a century.”

“He’s sixty-five.  Everyone gets the stories about Dad and Grandpa mixed up, but he did help Grandpa when he was a kid,” J’mee explained, “and he started bounty-hunting when he was like twelve or thirteen.”

“Twelve or thirteen?”

“Yep.  Started working on his own when he was fifteen.”

“What did your Grandpa think of that?”

“Grandpa got his head cut off by a Jedi just before Dad turned ten.  Never did find his head; Dad thinks it got pulped when a battledroid stepped on it.  Or Dad may have seen it happen.  I think Dad blocks a lot of details he doesn’t want to remember.  He has nightmares.”

Finn to his credit only gaped for a split second before changing the subject.

“What’s it like having Boba Fett for a father?”

J’mee shrugged.

“I can’t answer that.”

“Really?”

“Well, I don’ know what it’s like to grow up without Boba Fett as a Dad.”

Laughing, Finn admitted, “Okay that was a stupid question.”

The corner of J’mee’s mouth tilted up, just a hint of a smile.

“Yep.  Still, Dad may like to be the scariest person in a room, or close to it, but Dad’s a good Dad.  He loves us.  My turn to ask a question.  When you look at my Dad, what do _you_ see?”

Finn almost gave the flippant answer ‘the scariest person in the room,’ but something in in the way J’mee asked, made him realize the teen wanted an honest answer.  So Finn thought for a moment, tapping his fingers on the table.  His own answer surprised him.

“I see… a tired old man, no, a tired old monster who is sick to death of having to fight,” Finn was shocked to see J’mee nodding in agreement,  “He just wanted to be left alone to raise you three in peace, and Kylo Ren and the First Order took that away from him.”

“Join us the next time Dad does Lightsaber drills,” J’mee invited, “I think he’d like you.”

“Uh, thanks.”

“Anyway, I can I ask another question?”

“Sure,” Finn wondered what else J’mee could ask that would be so… unsettling.

“Just how did you bag both a pilot _and_ a Jedi?” J’mee asked with a curious grin that was all hormonal teenaged boy.

Finn gave him the hairy eyeball, the comment Jaster had made about his brother made more sense now.

“Well, for one thing I don’t think of them in that manner…”

Later Finn would remember this moment as the beginning of a solid friendship.


	9. Sometimes You Just Need A Hug

Jango found General Organa in the corridor outside of her son’s cell.  He didn’t understand why her brother or his apprentice weren’t here and they had be much more Force sensitive than he was; her distress was like a beacon.  And to Jango it seemed like shadows were swirling about her.  She wasn’t crying, not exactly. 

“Hey,” he said softly.  So maybe he wasn’t demonstrating the politesse his Dad drilled into them when dealing with someone like the General; Dad hadn’t been demonstrating that either much lately.  So with all the wisdom of an almost fifteen year old boy, he asked, “uhm, do you, uh, need a hug?”

Well that was awkward.

The General lifted her head and stared at him with tear-reddened eyes for a long moment; a pair of painfully earnest brown eyes stared back.

Leia hadn’t even noticed the boy before he spoke and in the back of her mind she could almost hear every instructor and mentor chiding her for the lapse. For just briefest flash she felt anger; it wasn’t fair that she and Han had lost Ben to Snoke, and then she had lost Han to the darkness consuming Ben, while Fett, _Fett_ of all people, had three boys who apparently adored their father and seemed to be, despite their father (or worse _because_ of their father,) genuinely good kids.  But as quickly as it came the anger dissipated; it wasn’t the teen’s fault.  Aside from the near riot in the mess hall their first day on D’Qar, the Fett Boys had been well-behaved and willing to help whenever they could.

“Uh, never mind,” Jango was saying when Leia laid a hand on his arm.

“Yes, I do need a hug,” Leia said kindly.

"Oh," Jango exhaled with a relieved smile, then wrapped his arms around the General in a filial embrace.

Leia returned the hug with a sigh and a gentle laugh.

When the hug broke a moment later, Leia was returning the Jango’s smile; the shadows he felt dancing around her retreating.  Out of the corner of his eye he thought he caught a glimpse of her brother, and he was smiling as well.


	10. Ghosts.  Wait?  A Ghost?

The Mess Hall was empty, or as empty as it ever got.   Empty enough that Boba felt comfortable enough to let his head drop into hands and let himself feel the weight of his age and damage the lifetime as a bounty hunter had inflicted on him.  Sometimes he wondered what the hell he was even still doing here.  Death had beckoned so many times Boba sometimes worried she would eventually become disinterested, and then what would he do?

Look after your family, a practical voice in his head supplied.

_A hundred years ago, in a farm house on Concord Dawn Prime (before the conflict between Death Watch and the True Mandalorians had torn the atmosphere from the planet, leaving only the small moons to be enviro-formed into livable, farmable satellites) Jango Fett the first had been born.  The first son and second child of J’mee and Barca Fett; a second son would die barely formed in Barca's womb when Vizsla’s Deathwatch invaded the farm looking for the men Journeyman Protector J’mee Fett was hiding in his fields._

He wasn’t so lost in thought that he didn’t notice a man sitting down across from him.   Nor that maybe he wouldn’t want to look up at him.  Still, Boba wasn’t going to just ignore someone bold enough to just plunk himself down when anyone with an ounce of sense and ability to read body language would know to stay away.  So Boba Fett lifted his head from his hands and met the sad eyes of Han Solo.

_Boba’s first memories were more a collection of sensations rather than a coherent event.  The warmth of his father’s arms cradling him.  The regular beat of Jango’s heart.  The soft low sound of a lullaby.  And most strongly a scent that meant safety, comfort and love._

Fett made a soft snort.

This was either a ghost or a hallucination.  He knew hallucinations.  Saw them more often than he wanted to, or would admit to.  A legacy of the sarlacc.

Still, when he usually hallucinated people it was either with their features exaggerated or completely missing and always at the age he last truly saw them.   This Solo had a normal looking face, just older and sadder than when Boba had last seen him.

A ghost then.

_You could never run from ghosts.  His father told him that.  You didn't have to fear them though, fear gave them power.  Jango had told him that as well.  Boba had seen many ghosts in his life and he had never been afraid.  (Except once, of a man with a purple light saber prowling the underworld of Coruscant, he had fled and never looked back.)_

"So," he pitched his voice so low the only person who should be able to hear was the man across from him, "are you just going to stare at me?"

"What are you doing here?"

He wasn't even certain he heard it, more a suggestion of Solo's voice.  He weighed his answer carefully.  It would be stupid to lie to a dead man, he decided.

"The Empire would always have a place for a man like me; the First Order?  If your son hadn't valued the connection to Vader, they would have shot me on sight.  You don't let someone like me run loose in the ordered society the First Order wants," Boba answered, "if it were just me, I'd take my chances."

He stopped, pride and stubbornness suddenly rearing their heads.  Quickly followed by anger and fear.   And resignation.  He dropped his head into his hands again.

"My sons, my family," Boba whispered, "I can't protect them on my own.  The Resistance was the best option with the least strings."

He raised his eyes to meet...nothing.

"Damn ghost."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> So what is the difference between a ghost and a Force Ghost? 
> 
> At least in this story, Force Ghosts are coherent consciousnesses achieved through deliberate meditation and preparation prior to death (unless you're Anakin Skywalker,) and regular ghosts are mostly a consciousness within the Force strong enough for the time being to retain a semblance of its former self but not terribly self-aware and will fade away over time. Unless they are very angry. 
> 
> Han's ghost is stronger than some because several strong Force-users have attachment to him.


	11. Mud (or Dad - a being who sooner or later will embarrass their offspring)

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This is silly, but the next few chapters will probably be serious and/or sad. So some humor first.
> 
> Any mistakes are mine, but many thanks to my Sister for beta-reading this.

When it rained on D’Qar, it _rained_ on D’Qar.

Poe, Finn and BB-8 were looking for Rey, they had planned to catch Rey and Finn up on some of the Republic’s popular culture since they had two whole days when their scheduled free time aligned. They were about to go check on the Millennium Falcon to see if Rey was fixing shoddy repair work done by the owners between when Han lost the Falcon and when Rey and Finn ‘found’ it for him, when they spotted two of the Fett boys peering around an outside door.  The teenaged Fetts didn’t look very happy.

“Hey,” Poe called amiably as they approached the teens, “Have you seen Rey?”

“Shhhh!” unhappy Fett #1 hushed.

“They might see us,” unhappy Fett #2 whispered.

"And someone might see _them_ ," unhappy Fett #1 half-whined.

Poe and Finn traded a worried look, and peeked around the edge of the doorway.  They traded another look when they pulled back.  This look bordered on amusement and confusion.

“What are your Dad and Jaster doing out there?” Finn asked chuckling, as BB-8 rolled to take a look and then beeped.

“Really?  Rey and Master Skywalker too?” Poe asked; they hadn’t seen the Jedi out there.

Jango and J’mee scowled in unison, then the five of them peeked out again.  A four way stumbling waltz was going on, with Rey and Boba vying to lead.

“Great, they’re _all_ dancing in the rain now,” Jango growled.

“And if Dad finds some mud they will all be coated in in,” J’mee lamented.

“Why?”

“We have no clue.  Dad’s always liked rain, the dancing in it is a recent development.  But it was fine you know, back on the farm,” J’mee sighed, twisting back so he could lean against the wall by the door, “and he’s never told us we have to too, but…”

“Jaster would always follow him right out into it,” Jango looked grievously wounded at his twin’s betrayal, “and if Dad find some mud there will be an epic…” he was cut off by an audible squelching thump on exterior wall, “oh kriffing hell no.”

BB-8 took another quick look and beeped a confirmation.  Mud had, indeed, been found.

They all looked again.  Boba Fett was on his rump in the middle of a mud puddle, Rey sprawled a few feet away, with Luke and Jaster laughing and pointing.  Rey looked at Boba, who grinned and offered her a handful of mud to throw at her Master.

As they hid against the interior wall again, Poe’s back stiffened, he could see General Organa, Admirals Ackbar and Statura, and Chewbacca approaching down the corridor.  The General’s brow furrowed when she saw the motley bunch gathered by the door, and Chewbacca roared out an inquiry.

“SHHHHH!!!!” the Fetts hushed in a panic just as a clod of mud came sailing through the door and land just short of the General’s feet.  She gestured for the Admirals and Chewbacca to stay where they were (the Admirals did, Chewbacca did not) and walked over to the door.  She took one look out it and then sighed.  She and Chewbacca returned to the Admirals; Poe, Finn, J’mee, Jango and BB-8 trailing behind them like a hesitant entourage.  Jango and J'mee were flushed red in embarrassment.

“I fear we would be interrupting an important Historical Reenactment of a major Jedi/Mandalorian battle,” she said wryly, “Asking my brother, the master Jedi, or Boba Fett to discuss potential Base relocation sites at this point would be inconsiderate.”

“They’re throwing mud at each other,” Admiral Ackbar muttered in disbelief.

“Yes, they are,” and that was General Leia Organa’s serene final word on the matter for the moment, “I suggest we sojourn for lunch,” she looked at her impromptu retinue, and kindly invited, “you are a welcome to join us.”

* * *

 

_Fifty-Five Minutes Later_

The commotion that foretold their arrival was loud and had an underlying sense of disbelief.  However the four participants in the Epic Mud Battle of D’Qar were too busy laughing and arguing over whether Hoth Chocolate or hot Tea would be better to warm up with (oddly enough the younger the participant the more strongly they argued in favor the Tea.)  They also didn’t notice the area immediately within the mess hall had been cleared of tables, something that should have made them very suspicious.

To be scrupulously honest, Rey and Jaster were muddy, but not so muddy that they were unrecognizable.  Luke Skywalker and Boba Fett, on the other hand, were leaning heavily on one another, grinning ear to ear, and were completely and thoroughly, head to toe, coated in mud.

“Gentlebeings,” General Organa ordered with great dignity and smugness, “turn on your hoses.”

 

 

 


	12. Meditation, Interrupted

Luke had thought he had finally found a way to meditate without interruptions.  Very few people thought to look  up at the ceiling in the base’s hangar, so he had found a space in the rafters that was not easily accessible.  Even Luke hadn’t been certain he could have climbed up there at his age without a little help from the Force.  Still he had a solid week of Fett-free meditation, although the rain and mud incident might have also contributed.  Fett had reacted liked a scalded gundark to being blasted with with a hose and bolted.   His sons had a brief falling out over it, Jaster had been furious with his brothers although he had very carefully not started yelling at them until they were out of earshot.  Of course, not two days later there had been another fish soup incident in the mess (why that one chef didn’t just give up no one knew) and they were back to being thick as thieves.

From the rafters it was soothing to watch the pilots, technicians and astro-mech droids do their duty and rounds.  He had watched Poe Dameron sit in the shadow of his X-Wing and play with BB-8, the little droid usually ending up in Poe’s lap, hugged like a felinx while Poe talked softly to it about their next mission, an extraction of some sort.  Luke guiltily felt a touch of envy: to have the freedom of being ‘just’ a pilot.

But all things come to an end and Luke had just been about to settle into deep meditation when he felt the vibrations on the beam.  He opened his eyes.  Fett was walking along the beam toward him.  Fett had been not exactly avoiding Luke, but the only times Luke had seen the other man was in meetings and sometimes eating in the mess hall.   Oddly enough Luke felt relieved, and annoyed -- Fett was more than decade older him and he was having no trouble at all on that beam.

“Did your padawan ask you yet?” Fett asked, as he sat down on the beam, balancing carefully.

“Asked me what?” Luke sighed.

“J’mee invited Finn to join us in practice; since he is the type to be considerate with his Partners,” Fett said with a frown, “he’s probably been talking it over with Her and their pilot.  Given the concern She and Finn have witnessed, they will want your permission.  So has She asked you yet?”

“No, Rey has not asked my opinion yet,” Luke chuckled, then tilted his head sideways, “you want me to say yes.”

“I did offer the first time we trained with the lightsabers,” Fett pointed out, looking out over the hangar, “he’s a good kid; She’d have someone who would have her back in any kind of fight.”

Luke conceded with a shrug.

“Have you and your sister decided what to do with...” Fett trailed off and gave a shrug of his own.

“We’re going to have to turn him over the Republic before we relocate the base.  There’s too much of a possibility Snoke will be able to find him,” Luke said regretfully, “but with the Republic government so shattered at the moment, it’s a fifty-fifty chance they will either execute him or turn him back over to the First Order to try and broker treaty of some sort.”

“You could just spare everyone the agony and do it yourself,” Fett suggested.

Luke fully turned his head to stare at Fett.

“My boys have a standing order,” Fett continued, his eyes weary and sad, “that if I’m ever too far gone, if I’ve become a danger, then they are to put me down.  I _want_ them to put me down.  If they put me down then they can know with absolute certainty there was no way for me to come back to them; someone else does it, they’ll always have the what-ifs.”

He didn’t have to be force-sensitive to feel the shock radiating from Skywalker.  Fett tapped his head.

“Skywalker, I can’t say that I’ve really been in my right mind since I was maybe eleven; my little sojourn in the sarlacc courtesy of Captain Solo didn’t help any either,” he smirked painfully, “this shouldn’t be a surprise to you.  Anyway, which would you prefer your sister living through?  Watching the execution live on the holonet, and you know they would do that, and some kriffing bastiche deciding to ‘accidentally’ bungle it so the people can see him suffering?   Or as I said, turning him back over to the First Order and whatever Snoke wants from him?  Or knowing it was done swiftly and painlessly as possible? ”

Luke turned away, a heaviness aching in his heart.

“Point taken.”

“I need to borrow you, your sister and your padawan,” Fett changed the subject abruptly,  closing his eyes and leaning back just enough that Luke was uncomfortably certain he would fall.

“Borrow us?”

“Hmhum, we need to do some legend making.”

Luke thought about it for a moment, the heaviness lifting enough that he infused his next words with a hint of mischief.

“I’m not certain I want to involve my sister or Rey in anything involving legend making with you.”

Fett’s eyes popped open and his dark scarred face flushed red.  He carefully rolled back up to an upright sitting position and gawped at Luke. 

“Not what I meant, Skywalker,” Fett finally managed to get out, “although the person I’m trying to do the legend making for probably would appreciate that scenario.  He likes dangerous women.”

Before Luke could respond there was a horrendous crash from below.

And both Rey and Poe were shouting for Finn.


	13. Round And Round We Go

Finn’s arms were curled around his head protectively. He took a deep breath and assessed the situation. He was under a heavy jumble of spare parts for the ships, the mobile shelving it had been on, and possibly the collapsed wing of an X-Wing. He ticked off the checklist that had been drilled into him from when he was small. He could feel all his limbs. There was a heaviness on his legs and he couldn’t moving them because of that, but it didn’t appear that they were crushed or broken. Other than that the rest of him was in a pocket empty space without a lot a room to moved around. He couldn’t feel anything jabbing into him, so he was relatively sure nothing had punctured him. He could see tiny bits of light and he could hear people shouting. Shouting for him. If everything went well he would be rescued, he would be fine.

Now the hardest part.

Someone had shouted at him to look out, someone had pushed him into the right place so he couldn’t be crushed.

Now he had to determine if they had sacrifice their life for his. He pushed away all the other noises and tried to hear the breathing of the person who had to be beside him.

Nothing.

Still.

“Hey? Hey you okay?” He asked into the darkness.

“I’m fine, kid,” came the response that was more a fading echo in his head and raised the hair on the back of his neck, “I’m fine...”

*~*

Luke’s reaction was to swing himself around so he could wrap an arm around Boba’s waist and pull them both off the rafter beam. He cushioned their landing using the Force, and then was kneeling by Rey’s side before Fett could even begin to vocalize a response to being grabbed like that. Luke gently grabbed her hands to stop her as she tried to dig through the debris.

“He’s fine, Finn is fine,” he said softly, “I can feel him; try reaching out and you’ll see for yourself.”

Trembling, Rey closed her eyes and reached with the Force. With a sigh bordering on a sob, she looked at Poe who had stopped digging when Luke had come over. Her smile was shaky, but...

“He’s alive.”

Poe sagged in relief and BB-8 beeped and tootled and bumped up against him in the little droid’s version of comforting.

“Now,” Luke didn’t even have to finish his sentence as he closed his eyes.

There was a faint screech of metal rubbing against metal as the jumble of debris rose from the hangar floor and started to move. Rey and Poe scrabbled under it the second they saw Finn and Finn tried to sit up.

“No, no, I’m fine,” Finn protested as they made him lay back down, “nothing broken.”

But Poe and Rey insisted he wait for a medic to check him out.

Luke set the jumble of metal down on an area that had been rapidly cleared. He looked around and spotted Fett leaning against a wall, looking slightly green, and glaring at him. Deciding that given how Rey and Poe were fussing over Finn and the hangar crew was attacking the debris pile, he could return to Fett.

“Did you really need to pull me down with you?” the old bounty hunter growled.

“Yes.”

Fett blinked slowly, raising an eyebrow.

“Yes?” he repeated unimpressed, “care to elaborate on that?”

Luke took a moment to consider it. He tilted his head, stroked his beard, nodded to himself.

“No.”

“No?” it was growled, but Fett couldn’t quite keep the corner of his mouth from twitching up.

“Are you going to tell me what legend you’re making?”

“Yes, a friend of mine is dying,” Fett answered tightly, looking down, “he deserves to have death that can be spun into a myth of epic portions.”

“I see,” Luke felt the sudden stab of grief that had flashed through Fett through the Force as if he were the one losing someone, “I’m sorry.”

Fett was looking every place he could not to meet Skywalker’s eyes, then he chuckled dryly.

“He knew your father too. If you’re lucky, Hondo Ohnaka may still have just enough life and time left in him to tell you about the time he captured him and Kenobi and held them for ransom. It’s a very funny story,” He finally looked back at Luke, “I’m pretty certain Hondo exaggerates bits of it. He exaggerates every story he tells. But they’re all true, even the ones I know he makes up. You’ll see your father it. But we need to get to Florrum soon.”

~*~

“Florrum,” Leia said slowly, “you want to go to Florrum now?”

She heaved a sigh and set her datapad down. She rubbed at her temples. Then looked at her brother and the bounty hunter standing there like, like, well it hurt to think of the last time Luke and Han had been up to mischief together. It didn’t seem right to have Fett standing there in Han’s place, but there he was anyway.

“It would incline smugglers and pirates to look favorably at the Resistance,” Fett offered blandly, “The Lady Kanata is there already.”

“We might even recruit some of them,” Luke serenely added. Leia could see even if she did not go, Luke’s mind was made up.

“Is it possible some are trustworthy enough to help us find a new location?” Leia asked wearily.

“Chewbacca is a favorite of Lady Kanata, and from what I’ve heard from the Governor of Florrum, she’s fond of both Finn and Master Skywalker’s padawan Rey as well,” Fett reasoned, “and you know she has no love for the First Order since they razed her fortress on Takodana. You should seek her advice at the very least.”

"The Governor of Florrum? Florrum doesn't have a governor. It doesn't have a government."

"Connor Freeman rebuilt the stronghold on Florrum after the Empire fell. He owns the largest cantina and all the landing docks and repair bays," Fett said with a shrug, "Connor's intelligent enough to know when to pull back from a conflict and skilled enough when a conflict refuses to pull back. And Hondo favors him; that’s come to mean a lot to certain people. Connor is recognized, more or less, as the Governor of Florrum."

Leia and Luke shared a look; they had both observed, other than his sons, Fett only ever referred to someone with a given name was if they didn’t have title or family name. And now here he was discussing two people by given names. Leia arched an eyebrow, and Luke returned the gesture with careful tilt of his head. Leia gave a mental sigh; Luke was intrigued and since she really didn’t want to let him out of her sight again…

“We will go on two conditions,” Leia said, picking up her datapad and tapping to begin making the proper arrangements, “The first is that we will all go in the Falcon…”

“I need to take Slave I, Hondo would never forgive me if I don’t bring her,” Fett interrupted, “but…my boys can travel in the Millennium Falcon, if Master Skywalker travels with me.”

“All right,” Luke conceded before Leia could object.

“All right then,” Leia wanted to thwack her twin upside the head, “the second condition, is you have to start speaking to the other Leaders of the Resistance; they’re convinced that should something happen to Luke or I, you’ll just disappear, or attempt to take over.”   
Luke and Leia felt the fleeting sense of terror come from Fett before he responded casually.

“Really? Sorry, my father taught me to talk to the Boss or don’t talk at all,” Fett shrugged, “I’ll do my best.”

Leia accepted that that was the best she was going to get at the moment.

“I need to discuss some matters with Luke,” she replied graciously, “and then we’ll prepare to leave.”

Fett nodded and left to tell his sons to get ready.

“You’re going to fly with him?” Leia asked Luke, irritation mixing with fondness in her voice.

Luke just laughed, and Leia just shook her head. On one hand she thought he was being terribly careless, on the other she had no doubt he knew exactly what he was doing. Then Luke took Leia’s hand, concern filling his eyes.

“Are you sure you’re okay with this?”

Leia laughed sadly in turn.

“No, no, not at all,” she admitted, “I have no doubt some of them will have known Han, and some of them will certainly trash-talk him, but if Fett is right, it will engender favorable leaning towards the Resistance,” she smiled distantly, her eyes looking somewhere other than the present, “you never know when you’ll need a smuggler to come swooping out of a sun.”

There was nothing Luke could say to that, but he pulled his sister into a hug.

~*~

After arrangements had been made, there was one last hurdle. Poe had been seen off on his mission with many hugs and kisses from Rey and Finn. But Leia spotted the travel bag at Finn’s feet and raised one elegant eyebrow.

Finn swallowed but stood up straight.

“Ma’am, I cannot in good conscience allow you go to Florrum without a bodyguard,” he said evenly, “You’re too important, Ma’am.”

“And my brother the Jedi Master, his apprentice, and Chewbacca are not sufficent?” Leia asked wryly.

“I did not say that, Ma’am,” Finn replied.

Leia snorted, she knew with Poe on his mission, Finn didn’t want to be separated from his other lover, but her features softened nonetheless. This young man would be a great leader someday, this she knew without reservation. This was good opportunity for him to observe and learn.

“Then I will be honored to have you come with me,” she nodded her head, as she turned on her heel to walk up the Falcon’s ramp.

Finn smiled as he followed her.


End file.
